My final camera in the twelve months of film project is the rather beautiful Olympus OM-2n.
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| The rather beautiful Olympus OM-2n |
The original OM-2 was released in 1975 and the OM-2n is a later, updated version. It is a camera that can be used in both aperture priority and manual modes. This particular example is in mint condition and I managed to pick it up for relatively nothing, as it was sold as not working. Reading about the common faults with the OM-2n model, I quickly realised it was a likely battery issue, so took a punt. When it arrived I placed a new battery in the chamber, and bingo, it worked. The camera really is rather special. Beautifully made and quite small. The film advance lever is almost velvety in operation and the shutter action is well damped. There is an exposure compensation dial on the top plate which is a great tool to have at your disposal, if working in aperture priority mode.
I loved using this camera during September. It has a fantastic, tactile feel. There is certainly something quite special shooting with such a lovely piece of equipment, and Olympus definitely ruffled a few feathers at Nikon and Canon, when they released the single digit OM series.
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| Film advance lever and exposure compensation dial |
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| On/Off switch and film rewind dial |
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| Back view showing the hot shoe attachment |
One of the problems with the OM-2n was the bad design of the hot shoe. The Shoe 4 always seemed to crack somewhere on the plastic. As you can see on my camera, this has been the case. Luckily it can be unscrewed and replaced with a new one, and I am on the hunt for a pristine copy at present.
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| The standard 50mm F1.8 lens |
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| View of the top plate |
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| Grasses at sunset |
One of my favourite images with the camera so far, is of silhouetted grasses against a vivid sunset . The vibrant colours and gritty film grain provide a lovely, almost emotional quality.
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| Pretty in blue |
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| Old postbox |
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| Chair in a summer's garden |
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| Chair in a summer's garden |
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| Lincolnshire dyke |
One area where I feel film can still hold an edge over digital, is in the emotional stakes. The image above lacks a certain sharpness that a modern digital camera would provide, but it has the ability to capture a certain mood or feel. Riding around the fen lands of Lincolnshire, you quite often stumble across scenes like the one above. A certain coldness and isolation can be felt, and film somehow captures this perfectly.
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| Fence and path |
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| Beautiful heather |
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| Heather moorland |
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| Kinema in the woods |
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| Pinewoods sign |
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| Low sun |
So that's it. Twelve months, twelve film cameras. I have put another film through the Asahi Pentax SP500 from month ten, as I didn't get any images from that camera first time round. Once I have the film developed and back, I will update that particular blog post, which should finally give me a complete set of twelve cameras and twelve sets of images. I plan to write one final post under the 'Twelve months of film category', hopefully during October, when I will put together a selection of my favourite images from the year, and write a bit about my favourite cameras from the project.
